Kraft Heinz launches plant-based cheese slices through NotCo joint venture

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Dive Brief:

• Kraft Heinz and NotCo are launching NotCheese, a plant-based version of the iconic Kraft American cheese, CEO Miguel Patricio said in与卡夫·海因兹（Kraft Heinz）的季度收益报告的备注Wednesday.
• NotCheese will be available in early November at about 30 Giant Eagle stores in the Cleveland area,彭博社报道。A national rollout is planned next year, according to the news service.
• This is the first product from the合资企业between theCpggiant and the artificial-intelligence-powered company that creates plant-based alternatives. While Kraft Heinz has a massive portfolio, it has historically had a relatively small presence in the plant-based alternatives segment.

潜水见解：

通过将其第一个产品从这家合资企业中制作出Kraft Heinz的签名产品之一，信息很明显：该公司正在全力以赴。

In the Q&A session with analysts, Patricio said Kraft NotCheese is “incredible.”

“It tastes like cheese, it smells like cheese and melts like cheese,” he said. “It is very different from everything that is in the market.”

According to Bloomberg, the main ingredients are water, coconut oil, modified corn starch and chickpea protein. They will come in American, provolone and cheddar varieties.

Plant-based cheese is a slowly growing category, though most of the players arestartups that only make plant-based cheeses。

Like many products in the plant-based analog segment, plant-based cheese makers have had difficulties using plant ingredients to closely mimic the taste, texture, mouthfeel, melt and stretch of dairy cheese. In fact, according toSPINS statistics reported by Food Navigator, sliced and snack plant-based cheese dollar sales were down 5.8% during the 52 weeks before Sept. 4. Unit sales were also down 7% in that time frame.

With this launch, Kraft Heinz joins a relatively small group of traditional cheese companies getting into plant based. Bel Group currently has plant-based versions of its classic cheeses on the market, as well asNurishh，纯粹基于植物的系列。今年早些时候，萨普托launched its Vitalite dairy-free cheese linein the U.S.

Notco是一家去年达到独角兽地位的智利初创公司，其启用AI-ai-a-Spaind产品已获得国际成功。Notco有一个powerful system it calls Giuseppe，分析了有关传统食品的几个数据点，包括味道，质地，气味和消费者情绪。然后，它找到了基于植物的成分来模仿它们。

In the U.S., the company’s NotMilk, NotBurger and NotChicken are available. Its largest portfolio is available in its home country of Chile, where consumers also can get NotMayo and NotIceCream. This is NotCo’s first foray into a cheese product.

根据彭博社的说法，与Kraft Heinz的合资企业正在为Notco：Notco：基于植物的蛋黄酱制作原型。NotMayo was the company’s first product据彭博社报道，智利并巩固了公司的地位，但尚未到美国，合资企业的蛋黄酱产品计划于明年推出。

In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how the joint venture’s NotCheese impacts the market.

After all, J.L. Kraft, the company’s founder, was thefirst to sell and popularize sliced American cheese。基于植物的版本上的Kraft品牌为其含义和高标准提供了很多信誉。这可能是认可的默契邮票，使人们更有可能尝试植物性奶酪。

But it isn’t necessarily surprising that the first product from this joint venture is cheese. After all, Kraft Heinz has been supporting food tech to change the cheese market for years. The CPG’s venture arm, Evolv Ventures, has两次投资在新文化中，这是一家制作无动物酪蛋白的初创公司，以创建植物性的奶酪，并具有其标志性拉伸。